Certain manufacturing processes call for operations on two legs of a single piece such as a workpiece having a U-shaped cross-section. The operations are designed to be along a common axis going through that U cross-section. Due to tolerances in the part, as well as the stiffness of the part, the machinery is designed to bring the tools in contact with each leg without deforming the leg prior to the operation, e.g. piercing. A variety of machinery or presses have been devised to alleviate some of the problems encountered in this area. That machinery has included various cylinder and piston combinations for moving opposed tooling against a central workpiece. This tooling, however, suffers from several drawbacks. Among the drawbacks are that the mechanisms for producing sufficient force for the piercing operations are not collinear with the tools themselves, e.g. the punches and anvils. Thus, as more forces are produced, the tools are subject to greater forces which can cant or cock the tooling relative to the desired line of operation. This results in greater tool wear with concomitant reduced tool life, as well as poorer performance due to inaccurate tool alignment, etc. Efforts to reduce some of the problems with unbalanced forces have been countered with larger more massive tools to resist the forces. This, however, can be self defeating in that the tools have to fit within limited space in the factory environment.